Organizing a Small Laundry Room

We have a rather small, not the smallest, but small none the less, laundry room and we have 6 occupants using it. There is nothing I hate more than clutter, but clutter in a small space is a nightmare for me, and on top of that I have to do the chore of laundry in this space. It hasn't been great these last several years, so much so that I have been folding on my bed.

I think I finally got this figured out!

Here's the space I'm talking about.

 

After thinking and brainstorming a long time about this I asked myself what do I hate most about my laundry room. It's stuff! Stuff on the counter, stuff on the floor, no work space. So I figured my objective is to get stuff off the counter and off the floor FOR GOOD! And make it comfortable to work in there.

I don't know about your house, but in mine clothes gets collected from everywhere. I can't tell you how many stray socks I collect from our basement every week. Then sweaters or t shirts that get left lying around. So for me step one was to make it organized to accept these items without compromising floor space.

 

I added 3 matching hampers to accept floater items at any time. One for dark, lights, and whites. I gave a lesson to my kids and husband :) that clothes on the floor is no longer an option. And when they do a dark load they can fill it in with whatever is collected in the dark bin etc.

The other issue was not having a clean workspace for folding closes. This is caused by the above articles and stray socks (ugh) that get washed with someone else's load but never seem to find it back to their closet. And calling that person to get their clothes is not really reasonable since at any given time they aren't even home. So I knew I needed better organized storage for that. So I installed one more shelf, so that I could put 6 generous baskets within reach for each person in our house. Their items can go into their basket when cleaned and they can empty it all when its full or when they do their own laundry. Yes all my kids do their own laundry but I take pity and help the boys fold. YES I LABEL STUFF This makes it easier to make everyone accountable.

 

Lastly I wanted hand towels, dish towels to have a quick and easy spot to be stored so I hung the undercounted baskets (in First photo above) to the underneath side of the counter. I actually had these laying around and all it took was some small hooks turned into the underneath side of the counter. Then I labeled them too so that other people in the house can help keep things organized instead of trying to read my mind where things should go :)

 

 

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Recommended Blog

A girlfriend of mine has this great blog where she discusses tons of great ideas and tidbits of info from parenting to organizing and life as a sailers wife. Check it out! Here's the link!

 

 

 

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How to Install a Dryer Heat Saver In a Cramped Space

We recently replaced our washer and dryer. And we wanted to take advantage of a heat saver on our dryer again as we had one many years ago in our old house. This is the one we bought.

 

Our little laundry room is quite small and we are a large family so space and organization are extremely important. When the new dryer arrived I was excited to get going and get it installed but immediately noticed my first issue. As you can see in the photo the dryer vent comes out of our wall very low, probably like most situations. Our new dryer sits on a pedastool and needs the port to be up higher. Not a huge issue we could run 2 elbows to bring it up and lie up with the new dryer, right, wrong! Because our room is so small and the new machines are so big they already block the doorway somewhat, but to add another 7 or so inches out from the wall to accommodate the new running of vents, no way. I grumped like I usually do when presented with a less than ideal situation, then I think. And this is what I came up with to give me everything I wanted.

 

I decided in is case I was ok cutting up the wall. I mean it's behind the dryer right? No one will see it. Still a bit nervous.

This is the mess I made. Actually its perfect. I dismantled the elbow coming into the room and installed an extension, the vent saver, and then a new elbow.

 

 

The final end result isn't too bad. These machines are huge compared to what we had. We now have enough room to reach around the side and behind to empty the grate on the heat saver and are able to run a fan that helps push the heat into the hallway.

Check out my next post where I go through how I keep 6 people organized in this tiny space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Yay I Get To Do Laundry!

That's exactly what I was thinking when I decided it was time to do mine and my husbands laundry. No believe me I can't believe that I wasn't being sarcastic when I thought it. But nop I am happy to do laundry. Mostly because I think I have finally gotten this laundry thing figured out with a win win situation. It goes quicker, with no stress and energy efficient.

It all started with a broken washing machine. This machine was only half the age of our dryer as it was going on 20 years old. Both of our machines had lost their door handles and we had improvised with shoe laces and bungy cords to be able to open them. We had been thinking about replacing our appliances for ages now as we have spent way too many times taking the washer apart and cleaning out the pump. It's dirty, messy, stinky and an uncomfortable time consuming job. Yuck all around! Anyways over the end of the holidays the damn pump quite AGAIN! Staring down another pull apart (only 2 weeks from the last time in which we found nothing and yes the damn thing worked again after we out it back together!) ...we caved! Not the most ideal time to buy a washer and dryer from the pocket book standpoint but none the less we decided to jump.

 

Just for the record washer and dryers are the absolute cheapest on Boxing Day! We were Shopping after that point but not out of the sale category. Also note that Sears will forward their up coming sales and reimburse you cost on those dates. Yay! We ended up with a great deal and opted for the insurance on the washer. Yes we have lost faith :(

So pleased with our purchase this was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. And the beginning of a laundry room overhaul.

 

I had overhauled the laundry area several years prior with shelving and bars for hanging and drying laundry but now it was time to step it up a notch.

Here's a before.

 

Here is the after!

 

Check out my next couple of posts where I talk about installing a heat saver vent for the dryer and how to organize a small laundry room for aLarge family.

 

 

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Paleo Recipes - These Were A Hit At Our House

It's been a couple of days since I've posted. We did finish the flooring in our master bedroom makeover only to RUN OUT! Man I hate that! I'll post about that all later. 

Nop this time I'm talking about recipes. I have two newbies for you that were a hit at our house. 

This recipe is called Paleo Spegghetti Pie the adults in the family thought it was delicious. And some of the kids didn't mind it at all. We did have one thumbs down but all in all not bad. So It went into the tested and parents loved recipe section.  

Another recipe we just added to our was Mel's Good For You Cookies. I can't for the life of me find the link for this one. So if you're out there and this is your recipe post me a note and I can link it over. Here's our photo and my notes that I saved. Now these aren't really a cookie to me. More like a chewy granola snack but they are yummy and have very little sugar. Only what you find in chocolate chips. Kids love them and they were filled into our PASSED THE TEST - Healthy Snacks! 

Recipe Organization App

If you're like me and have stepped into the digital era, you probably are no longer using your cookbooks. I gave the last of mine away a couple of months ago and everything I do has gone digital. It's easier, right! You know all your favorite recipes are on that iPad or computer. All in one place and easy to find, right? Well not really. Because if you're like me you've collected links on facebook and your yum app, one recipe and paper ones too. But I recently found a solution to get them all, in all their different formats into one organized spot. I recently purchased, for the price of a glorified fancy coffee an app called recipe gallery.

This app is great for me because it uses your screen capture or photo gallery to import you recipes. Then you can organize recipes from absolutely anywhere. As soon as you import it allows you to crop to your relevant information or photos and it works great.

 

I recently started advance prepping meals or doing freezer meals two months ago. What I learned quickly was doing 5 meals of a recipe my family is not crazy about is really a bad idea. So I started using this app to organize recipes from testing stage to passed the test so I will hopefully have a full list of recipes they love Iin one spot.  Then on meal prep day I can compile my grocery list and be ready to go!

Great App. Check it out!

 

 

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Master Bedroom Makeover - Step One (Paint) - Check!

 

BEFORE AND AFTER

 

 

Well the paint is done. Onto the flooring. We are going to have to rip and lay down flooring. A little at a time because I am NOT moving all the furniture out of the room. And we want to live in it as we go.

 

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Lunches Stress Me Out

LUNCHES STRESS ME OUT!

Trying to get kids and teenagers to spend 5 minutes in order to prepare a healthy, gluten free lunch is trying to say the least. Here's one tip that gets something wholesome in their bellies that is easy and they don't mind eating.

 

Apple sauce!

It's actually very very easy to make. My step father taught me that you don't need to blender it just a quick run thru with a masher does the trick.

I bought a massive amount of apples from good friends of ours who have an orchard Last fall and left them in the garage in a big tub. Keeps the critters out but cool enough to keep good. Now I admit I should have gotten onto this a bit earlier as some apples are on their way out.

I chose a tart apple for the majority of the batch but I also like to throw in a sweet one or two to make it a bit nicer and avoid using sugar.

I used a peeler that I got from Stokes. It is the absolute best and if I ever recommend a product this would be it. Simple construction, inexpensive and it cores, peels and slices in one shot. ITS A DREAM!

Peel up however much you like, throw in a big pot with a bit of water, cover and boil till nice a mushy, add cinnamon if you like and mash. I put my batch in jars that were clean but not sterilized as I am not keeping them long term. They will get refrigerated and eatin probably by the end of the week. But at least this way it can be a quick stash and go for my guys lunches. Want more info? Please leave a comment.

 

 

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Master Bedroom Makeover Day 1

 

DAY 1

This

To This

 

 

Here is what my room looks like now. It's really big I know. Our house is stupid big. And before you start thinking oh that must be nice ask to see my hydro bill and house maintenance bill. The amount of work and energy to keep this size of house up is absolutely exhausting. I would gladly trade it for something smaller, well at the right price anyways. ;)

HERE ARE SOME MORE BEFORE SHOTS

 

 

The first thing I did was pull up the baseboard. Normally I don't do this of course if I'm just painting but I will be replacing the flooring so it needs to be out for that. Pulling nails from hardwood trim is the part I dislike most in this job. But it's valuable trim so we salvage everything we can.

 

Next I patched all the walls with puddy knife and some poly fill. How's the time to clean up all the dents, scratches and scrapes. Then on to my favorite part...painting. I chose the most difficult wall first and I cut in with a brush at ceiling edge and around windows. Then finished the rest with the roller. I have never used tape after being taught by professional painters a hi quality angle brush is all that's needed. I don't need to worry about the floor as its getting tossed along with 13 years of yuck, so no drop cloth ( which I never do anyways, just have a wet rag handy and clean as I go.). I have learned over the years to load paint appropriately and move slowly and most disasters are avoidable.

 

That's it for today and will be posting again as I go.

See ya!

 

 

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FINALLY!!! - a place to share my passions

I never really feel comfortable posting too much about what I do on facebook. I figure people don't really want to see yet another project that I have going, started or completed. But I LOVE finding what others do and learn what they learned sooo, on that vein, I want to post back! Karma baby! :)

So look forward to tons of photos and tons of how tos and tons of wow I found this cool! Oh and please ask questions. Hearing from others would be so great!

Up next I should be doing the budget tomorrow or cleaning something or catching up on work or putting the Christmas decorations away, but I'm itching because I have had 3 gallons of paint (bought during a paint sale couple months ago) just waiting for me to find time.

I love paint. It is definitely huge on my addiction list. I love picking colors and all that creative stuff. I spend hours and hours thinking and planning my paint colors. But more than that I LOVE painting. It soothes me and makes me so excited and happy (really grouchy if the color looks bad, which doesn't happen much anymore). I get giddy in the Home Depot when I buy paint. It's really weird and thank god my husband finds it humorous. Everyone should see the amount of saved paint I have!

 

Anyways after 13 years this spring of living in this house I am redoing our master bedroom, and not just paint!

 

Step 1- remove baseboards

Step 2- paint. (I will be doing one wall at a time. As I don't have a ton of time on my hands and I hate looking at a project partially done I will paint prettily to the corners. More work today but smiles tomorrow)

Step 3- rip carpeting up

Step 4- lay down laminate

 

Step 5- install new bed and night stands

Step 6- new curtains

Step 7- this is a wait and see but I would love to faux brick the fireplace and change it up. We will see.

 

See ya tomorrow!

 

 

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